


in a coffeeshop, in a city

by taibhsearachd



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Nomad: Girl Without a World, Spider-Girl, Young Allies (Marvel)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Diners, F/F, Flirting, Grief/Mourning, Onslaught warning, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Supergirlfriends, Superheroes, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-18
Updated: 2012-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-10 04:59:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhsearachd/pseuds/taibhsearachd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You wanna go to a diner?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	in a coffeeshop, in a city

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ruffboi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruffboi/gifts).



"So I have a serious question."

Rikki grinned to herself as she pushed her goggles up, red and blue afterimages of police lights flashing in her vision as she watched the squad car round the corner and drive away. This should be good. Anya did ask actual serious questions, on occasion, but never in that tone. "Yeah?"

"It's three in the morning. Tell me again why we're not allowed to skip _one_ day of school because we were busy fighting the forces of evil?"

Rikki sighed and turned to face Anya, pulling the goggles all the way off her head so she could rake her fingers through her hair. She did _not_ need the reminder of how little sleep she was going to get, or the fact that it was technically Monday already. "I don't think that was technically a question, but it's because unless we want to get kicked _out_ of school, we'd probably have to inform the administration about the whole fighting the forces of evil thing. I don't think that'd work out for us."

Anya's shoulders slumped, and she gave Rikki a pathetic pout. Rikki couldn't help but wonder how she managed to be so expressive in a mask that covered her eyes and half her face, but she suspected that was a question she'd never get an answer to. "Why nooot?"

Shrugging, Rikki started scanning the nearby buildings for a way up to the rooftops. She was going to need to get some altitude before she started home. "Because if we let ourselves do it, it's never going to be just once. And school records aren't secure, and neither of us has a death wish to my knowledge. Do you know you get whiny when you're tired?"

"And you get paranoid always."

"Tell me something I don't know," Rikki snorted and started across the street, having spotted a fire escape she thought she could reach if she got a running start. It would make more noise than she preferred, but stealth wasn't exactly necessary at the moment, and sometimes you just had to make do.

"I'm hungry."

She tossed Anya a frown over her shoulder. "Uhhh... good to know?"

"Hey, you _asked_ ," Anya answered with a shrug and a grin. "My turn for a question again."

"I didn't know we were taking turns."

"Well, now you do."

Rikki slid her goggles back onto her head and pulled them down over her eyes before she started for the fire escape at a run, springing from the sidewalk to the railing around a basement-level stairwell, and using the boost off it to get herself to the ladder. The bottom rung smacked against her palms through her gloves, and her weight dragged the ladder down to the sidewalk; Rikki clambered halfway to the first landing by the time it hit the ground.

Anya followed, pulling the ladder up behind her, and then tried, as always, to race Rikki to the roof, elbowing to try to get past her without much success. She always won the races when she still had her powers; now, with Anya still finding her footing as a so-called normal person, Rikki tended to come out ahead.

This time, she hit the roof a half-step ahead of Anya, and paused just after hauling herself up over the edge to glance over at her friend. "So what was the question?"

"You wanna go to a diner?"

Rikki blinked at her, wondering if she'd actually heard that right. "You remember the part where it's three in the morning, right?"

"Yeah, but this is New York, and you know you're not gonna sleep much anyway. What's another half an hour less?"

Rikki thought longingly of her bed, and how _badly_ she wanted to be in it just now. How much more she'd want to be in it when it came time to head to school. Then again... with a mattress like cardboard and a pillow not much better, her desk in first period wasn't any less tempting a place to sleep.

Anya grinned and tilted her head, knowing she'd already won. "Come on. You, me, pancakes..."

*

The first time two teenage girls in superhero costumes walked into the diner at three in the morning, it got a few stares from the staff, even in Manhattan. It probably didn't help that Anya kept her cowl on the whole time, or that Rikki still had blood (not hers) on the knuckles of her gloves, a fact she only noticed _after_ the poor waitress glanced at it nervously a couple times.

To her credit, said waitress rallied quickly, got them seated, and served them without asking about or remarking on the costumes, the blood, or anything else. The second time they came in, a couple weeks later, the woman only paused briefly before offering them a smile and a table. The third time, she didn't even bat an eye, and she greeted them by name – as Spider-Girl and Nomad, of course.

It took Anya longer to notice that every time they went, Rikki didn't order food, just coffee, and occasionally stole a few bites of Anya's strawberry pancakes if she offered... but not that long.

"Do you have something against breakfast food or what?" she asked abruptly one night (or morning) when Rikki asked for coffee again.

Rikki blinked at her in bemusement, and flicked a glance to the waiter to see if she understood Anya's question any better than Rikki. If she did, she wasn't going to be helpful about it, because she just grinned and looked down at her order pad without a word. Rikki settled for glancing back at Anya, eyebrows raised, and asking eloquently, "Huh?"

It was hard to tell with her mask on, but Rikki was almost certain Anya rolled her eyes at her. "Never mind." She straightened a little in her booth and looked up at the waitress with a bright grin. "Heather, can I get some strawberry pancakes annnd... what do you think, Nomad? Chocolate chip? With whipped cream?"

"You're not getting me breakfast."

"You're right, I'm not. I'm getting _me_ breakfast. If I happen to not finish it, and you steal whatever's left... Well, I really can't help that, can I?"

"Don't put that order in," Rikki said to the waitress, because obviously arguing with Anya wasn't going to get her anywhere. "Please."

The twist of the woman's lips made it perfectly clear she was trying not to laugh. "Sure thing, girls."

"And another coffee!" Anya added as Heather turned to go, earning a wave of acknowledgment over her shoulder. Rikki watched her head back to the kitchen with a faint scowl, fairly certain she knew which of the two of them won that particular contest.

Sure enough, when the waitress came back a few minutes later, it was with two plates of pancakes, and Rikki sighed when she set down the plate with the chocolate chips in front of her. She _was_ hungry – _nothing_ burned calories like running around on rooftops and fighting crime – but that was beside the point, but she wasn't sure a little hunger wasn't more tolerable than the gnawing guilt of knowing she couldn't pay her back.

"You didn't have to do this," she muttered, gently kicking Anya's ankle and trying to ignore the sudden flush of heat in her cheeks.

"I know," Anya said, like it was nothing, and hooked her foot around Rikki's ankle like that was just something they _did_.

Rikki blinked, her cheeks warm now in an entirely different and much more pleasant way, and looked down to hide the smile tugging at her lips as she reached for her fork. It was pointless trying to argue with Anya – she was stubborn as hell, and she always got what she wanted eventually. Tonight, Rikki couldn't say she minded that about her, even a little bit.

*

It was easy to fall into the old routines after... Well, just _after_.

In a way, it was good. Comforting. Going to school, coming home, doing homework, translating, letting Rocky or Carol or Sue drag her out to dinner every now and then... Sure, she walked through it all distantly, disconnected, like her whole life had become some kind of half-lucid dream, but at least it kept anyone from worrying, kept those pitying sideways glances no one thought she saw to a minimum. She'd done this before, after her dad died. She knew sooner or later, the dream would snap into focus, and it would just be her life again.

In other ways... She'd find herself sitting on rooftops where she and Rikki used to meet, and it would take a few minutes before she'd remember that no one was coming. She'd turn to make some joking comment, and freeze, heart twisting in her chest when it was Spider-Man, not Nomad, at her side.

She'd walk into a diner one morning, after a really long night chasing down bad guys, and slide into a familiar booth without even realizing she hadn't been there since Colombia.

"Hey, Spider-Girl! Long time, no see!"

Anya's head jerked up at the greeting, a fake smile plastered on her face while her heart sank. It had to be Heather, the same waitress every time. Well, of course it was. She and Rikki always came in around the same time, early mornings when it was too late to sleep and they had some time to spare between a quick change of clothes and heading to school. It was nice to have someone who recognized them and didn't question the costumes back then, but now... "Hi! Yeah, I've been. Um. Busy, I guess."

"Well, we missed you guys. Is Nomad dropping by too, or...?"

Anya bit her lip to stop it from trembling, and looked down, glad for the mask that hid her eyes. Stupid. She shouldn't have come here, and if she'd been thinking, if she hadn't been so tired, if she hadn't been sleepwalking through everything, she never would have. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"No, she's..." There was no explanation she could give. The truth wouldn't come out, would just stick in her throat the moment she tried to say it. A lie just seemed unfair to Rikki; she deserved so much more than that.

She settled for just shaking her head, and Heather went still and silent for a moment. Maybe she understood. Maybe she just didn't know what to say. Finally, the waitress just swallowed and said, more subdued than Anya'd ever heard her sound, "So... the usual, then?"

"Uh..."

Anya kicked her foot out gently, and was half surprised despite herself when her toes didn't bump into Rikki's ankle.

"No. Just... Just coffee, please."


End file.
